Yoga Can Be a Path to Health and Well-Being for the Hispanic Community

I walked into my
first Kundalini yoga class about 15 years ago. I had done other forms of yoga
before but none had prepared me for the experience of Kundalini. I was soothed
by the beautiful music that played, known as mantras, and the chanting all around
me. “Let the nervous system adjust,” I heard, and obediently my body vibrated
as if it knew how to do the adjustments naturally. We meditated to the healing
sounds of mantras and as we laid down to rest the powerful sounds of the gong
took me to a place that I had forgotten, where peace, gratitude, and the
feeling of well-being are found. In 2006, I graduated as a Kundalini Yoga and
Meditation Teacher from Golden Bridge Yoga, a studio in Los Angeles. Though there
are many branches of yoga, the right branch will find the student according to their
path.

As a bilingual
person, I have tried to expand the awareness of the benefits of yoga to the
Spanish-speaking community. With new certificate in hand, I approached local Parks
and Recreation staff and got a contract to teach a series of Yoga en Español classes
at Salazar Park in East L.A. My largest class was four students, one of whom was
my husband. Years later, an offer came to lead a yoga class in Spanish at a
reputable Kundalini yoga studio in Pasadena. I taught that class for four years,
until it ended recently. And while I had larger groups of students from time to
time, the class was for the most part attended by only a few.

What is it about
the Spanish speakers in our community that they do not take advantage of the
incredible benefits of yoga? I’ve formed some hypotheses.

It has been my
experience that almost all of my Spanish-speaking students had misconceptions
about what yoga is all about. Some had concepts of yoga as a mystical practice
done only by Buddhist monks; others had some vision of yoga being a religious
practice. All of my students arrived at my class either because a doctor or
therapist recommended they do yoga or because a friend, oftentimes an
English-speaking friend, exposed them to the benefits of yoga. While I have a
small data sample based on the number of students, sadly, none of them reported
attendance because of education or information coming to them from the
Spanish-speaking community. Some of them had seen yoga demonstrated on TV shows,
but with minimum education about what yoga is all about, their myths about it continued.

To dispel those
myths, there is some basic information about yoga that everyone should know.
First, let’s start with the meaning of yoga. Yoga, as you might have heard, is
the union of mind, body and spirit. What does that mean? If you can imagine a
state of feeling uplifted, at peace, centered, whole, and any other attributes
that signal a state of higher consciousness, for no particular reason, you can begin
to understand what this union might feel like. You feel a sense of well-being,
even if things around you are in chaos. Yoga is a tool and a science that a
person can use to acquire the mental, physical and spiritual capacity to enjoy
life to the fullest. It is believed by practitioners that yoga and meditation can
cleanse the organs and glands, ridding our bodies of toxins and boosting our
immune systems. The practice of yoga gives us greater mental clarity; this in
turn allows us to become better problem solvers, allowing us to act rather than
merely react to problems. Yoga taps into deep places of our being, helping us
to form new attitudes about life, ourselves, and others. And of course, there
is the benefit of relaxation, where we get to experience the calm of just being.

The
benefits of yoga are truly innumerable, and that is why expanding yoga education
and knowledge about this ancient healing art to the Hispanic community is so
important to our health and well-being. I remember one of my first students, a
lady in her fifties, who started out as a nervous wreck. Her breathing was off,
and by simply learning to breathe properly, she also learned to regulate her
mood.

The
point is, yoga is not only for those with flexible bodies; anyone can benefit
from yoga. I invite you to try a yoga class and share the personal experience that
you have with others.